Why The Elder Scrolls Is So Special To Me

The Elder Scrolls is, far and away, my favourite franchise in video games. This article tells you why, and, I think, is some of the best writing I've done, and certainly some I'm most proud of.

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As I write this I begin to hear that unmistakable music in my head; three drum beats repeated twice and then the launch into a cacophony of of lovely, beautiful music. This is Skyrim, and this -- for me -- is where it all began.

July 2013. After years of pestering I finally gave into my friends' demands that I buy an Elder Scrolls game. A game I had heard of over and over again while they expressed their love for video games. The game arrived and I downloaded the contents to the hard-drive of my computer. Waited for Steam to do its stuff - and clicked play. This would be the start of something for me. Skyrim got me into video games properly. It made me check IGN, GameSpot and Kotaku everyday. That made me appreciate writing about games, and that made me start this blog - and now you are reading this.

Skyrim didn't only get me into the world of video games, but also into the world of Tamriel (where The Elder Scrolls games are set). I loved Skyrim more than any type of media I'd loved before. For me a game is outstanding when it makes me fall in love with it and Skyrim truly did that. Up until now I've played around 90 hours - which is really nothing compared to most people. but enough for me to see what I need to see, and play what I need to play. One day I WILL go back to Skyrim and play through the whole thing again.

Then I move on. The music changes and starts off louder, more abrasive - but still recognisable as an Elder Scrolls soundtrack. We move on in my timeline of Elder Scrolls games to Oblivion - a game that divided opinion, but also one that I love profusely.

January 2014. I had finished the DLC for Skyrim, and was now ready to move onto a new game that would suck my time. I spent months searching for something as modern as Skyrim but never truly found anything that compared, at least in my mind, to the quality. I looked at forums, message boards, blogs. In each of these places one name kept popping up. Oblivion. "If you like Skyrim - you'll probably like Oblivion." Oh, boy were they right.

For many Oblivion wasn't what they wanted. As I mentioned in my review it was sandwiched in a difficult place - between Morrowind and (later) Skyrim. But in the order I played it, it came after the latter game - and that seems to be the way it fits best. The fourth Elder Scrolls game was what I needed and satisfied my Skyrim withdrawal symptoms and I fell in love again. I loved the world, the quests (even if some were a little tedious on occasion) and I really loved the characters. But, I don't want to revisit like I do with Skyrim.

Oblivion will always hold a special place in my heart for blocking the gap between Skyrim and the greater world of video games, but can never live up to its successor in my opinion, at least for how I feel about it personally.

And we move on once more. We hear the drum beats again, but this time they lead into a softer version of the Skyrim music. This is Morrowind and this is the future.

To this day I have never played Morrowind. Widely regarded as the best Elder Scrolls game, it came out in 2003 and IS currently available on Steam. One day I'll buy it and click play. One day the adventure will begin again. And then one day there will be a brand new Elder Scrolls game to sink into. Oh how I long for that day.